Born through fire
by XXinsidemymindXX
Summary: When every day is a struggle to survive and all you have ever known is running and hiding, the one thing you cannot stop dreaming about is to have normal life. Teenagers Natsu and Lucy form a strong bond despite the chaos. Will their friendship grow into something more? AU thriller: no magic, no dragons.
1. Intro

An AU story starring Natsu and Lucy with other familiar characters out of the FT universe making guest appearances, no magic, no dragons, thriller

_When every day is a struggle to survive and all you have ever known is running and hiding, the one thing you cannot stop dreaming about is for the hunt to end, one way or the other._

**Born through fire**

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_intro_

If Igneel Dragneel had to be honest he had to admit pulling the note down from the noticeboard that faithful day all those years ago was the dumbest thing he could ever have done. But when you are a poor 19-year-old college student who has the world ahead of you and are not used to spending a second thought on your own immortality… Well, then 500 bucks a week for letting some white collars' inject you with a trial run for a performance-enhancing drug did not sound too bad. It meant that he could stop his night job at the bakery and still pay rent. Hell it might even help his studies if he were lucky.

The project went on during one whole semester and if he had been left in charge it would have kept on going during his whole degree, all he had to do was to head to the address written on the black-board note once a week, offer his right arm for the needle injecting and answer a few, in his thought weird questions, such as trying to guess what card his interviewer was holding up and what he was thinking. At first Igneel was convinced they were messing with him but hey, 500 dollars was a smaller fortune and if they were happy giving him that kind of money for lending them his arm and an hour a week of his time he was not going to complain about it.

At the end of that semester however, something happened that made him wonder what chemical formula the transparent liquid they kept injecting him with actually consisted of. When he was once again asked to figure out what the man in front of him was thinking, the idea of ice-cream suddenly popped into his head and once he had caught that first hint more sensations and images started flooding his mind. He could taste the soft vanilla flavour and he could feel the sun burning on his bare skin, he was lying down on the beach and a young girl entered his mind, she was dressed in an older style white blouse and a matching skirt and even though her facial features remained clouded he could see golden shimmering blond hair glitter in the sunlight. He could feel himself smiling and asking the girl where she had been.

Naturally, Igneel freaked out, he jumped out of the chair he had sat on and rubbed his palms against his eyes, reversing away from the smiling man in front of him. The man left his own chair and moved towards Igneel but the younger man pushed him away, growling at the well-groomed man in the black suit to stay away from him, clawing his eyes to make the disturbing images go away: this was impossible; telepathy did not exist for heaven's sake. This could not be happening to him. He got up on his feet and ran. He ran and he did not stop running until he stood in front of his old studio flat. The young man with the flamingly red hair and rather lanky physique unlocked his apartment with shaky hands and headed straight for the bathroom, suddenly extremely nauseous. He fell on his knees, obeying his protesting stomach in its demanding desire to turn itself inside out and passed out: lying in the middle of his own vomit he stayed that way through the whole day.

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A/N: So this was a small appetizer to set the scene, from the next chapter the story will follow Natsu and Lucy so bear with me until then. In the meantime, let me know what you think?

Once again, lots of thanks to The Evil Stick for helping me proof read my material and rid my stories of the worst blunders before it goes out to you my read readers. Hm, come to think about it, what if the Evil Stick isn't so evil after all? (just don't tell 'it' that I wrote this, I will be forever cursed then...)

And as always: All the cred for creating the wonderful FT universe and all its inhabitants goes to Hiro Mashima, I own nothing and I am only doing this for fun.


	2. Chapter 1

**Back again! As promised, this chapter will be an introduction of both Lucy and Natsu to the story.**

**I would like to thank The Evil Stick for great input and support as well as proofreading my chapters!**

**As always, feedback is greatly appreciated :)**

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Chapter 1

Natsu Dragneel had been running his whole life. He had been running from an unknown enemy as long as he could remember and he did not even know why.

Now, at 18 years old, he had grown up to be a handsome teenager with unusual salmon-coloured spiky hair and a slim, muscular body, a result of taking hard labour wherever he could find it. He never received a proper education, there had never been a chance for him to sit down and properly study even though his dad had taught him the basics in reading and writing. They had always been on the move, never settling down on the same spot for any period of time. His father had taught him that this was necessary to survive and even though Natsu had always wondered why, his father had always refused to explain anything. He had just looked at Natsu, smiled sadly and said that it was for his own good.

Then one day he was gone. No letter, no warning. When Natsu woke up one morning he was just gone.

Natsu had looked for him, for years he roamed the streets in different cities and the country side of many different states but he never found a single clue as to where his father had gone.

Now, more than seven years later, he had stopped looking.

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Lucy's mother had hid her. She had spent most of her young life in a dark basement in which her mother had home-schooled her. On her death bed, Lucy's beautiful mother Layla Heartfilia had given her three ornamented golden keys, all of them looking slightly different and a small piece of paper with three addresses written on it. Layla had made sure that Lucy knew the addresses by heart and then burned the small piece of paper before handing her daughter the exquisite keys. She had arranged for Lucy to come and live with the owner of the first place: a dignified lady with a fierce temperament and the most remarkable blue hair, seemingly coloured by the deep sea from which she made a living, in a small fishing village in the outskirts of the country and if anything would happen Lucy had been instructed to run, run to the next place and not look back. Always running, and hiding.

Such was her life and now at the age of 17 she had gotten used to it. She knew why it was necessary and she had accepted her faith, her only problem was she was now down to her last key.

She had lived with the grumpy fishing lady for three years until they had found the place. She had managed to get away from her followers but only just, and it had been a hard earned lesson for her.

Never ever let your guard down.

If she would have been more alert, then maybe the lady with the azure-blue hair would still live peacefully in the small village, earning her keep by heading out on the sapphire blue ocean in the early mornings and selling her fish at the market the same evening. As it was now she rested quietly many feet underground next to a small unattended gravestone.

The next address on her list had belonged to a hair dresser; he was a tall man with red and black Rasta braids plated together into two big buns on the top of his head. Lucy silently wondered how on earth her mother had come in contact with these, in her opinion, rather random people but she never gathered the courage to ask, afraid of the answer she had always forced herself to drop the subject whenever the nagging thoughts popped into her mind. Admittedly, she could easily have found the answer without asking but she had over the years learnt not to pry into people's minds, not unless it was an emergency and she needed to do it to protect herself.

Lucy had stayed with the hair dresser for almost five years. If she had to pick she would probably have chosen those years to be the most joyful years of her life. He had a way to hold himself that made her feel relaxed and at home in his small apartment, she worked in his little shop, helping out with taking bookings and other minor administration duties as well as sweeping up old hair from the floor and keeping the place tidy in general.

It was a warm, sunny Tuesday morning when she started running the second time. She walked down the street towards the hair dresser shop to open it for the morning when she saw the smoke. It grew taller and darker by the second and originated from where the old shop used to be. She turned around and ran, desperately hoping that the tall, goofy man who had been kind enough to give her shelter for so long had not arrived early that morning but not turning back to confirm that he was alright.

Even though she hoped that he had made it out, she knew better… She had already seen it…

Salty tears gushed freely down her flustered cheeks as she cursed her destiny, she had never asked for this so called 'gifts'. It had never brought anything but pain. It was not fair and she cursed her mother, the one who made her what she was.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The last address on her list belonged to a goat farmer. He was a simple but dignified gentleman who had inherited the farm after his parents had passed away a few years earlier and he was the one that confirmed her growing suspicion that the people she had been staying with since she was a young girl were old classmates with her mother in college.

It did not take long for her to adapt to the farm life, the simple but fulfilling daily chores calmed her down and she enjoyed being out in the open: far away from the city with its stenches and stress. She never let her guard down though. She had learnt her lessons the hard way and she always slept with a knife under her pillow and a prepacked back pack next to her bed for her to grab quickly if needed.

The hair dresser had coloured her hair dark mahogany-brown and she had started to wear blue coloured contacts to cover her chocolate brown ones' in order to alter her appearance as much as possible.

A few months into her farm stay something happened that turned her whole world upside down. A boy arrived.

She was just finishing up the morning dishes when she heard a knock on the door. She quickly grabbed a sharp kitchen knife and hid behind the curtain, carefully peeking out to see who was there. To her relief instead of finding men in dark suits on the other side of the door she did see a young man with a peculiar hair colour around her own age impatiently stomping around, lifting his arm to knock again with a determined look on his face.

Her eyes widened, she recognised him.

_Flashback:_

_She had lived with the blue-haired fisher -lady a little bit more than a year when she met him the first time. A scrawny kid, dressed in a set of clothes that either did not fit him or had more holes than fabric, had cautiously approached their stand at the market. Lured there by the enticing smell but with no money in his pockets, he had opted for gazing dreamingly as the delicious food from a few meters afar for ages without daring to walk over to talk to her. _

_When Lucy noticed the young boy she smiled and waved at him. It had been a while since she had spent some time with anyone in her own age and she would appreciate someone to talk to for a bit. As he came closer she could see the hunger in his eyes, the boy was obviously half starved and she suspected that he had no money to pay for food. _

_Discretely looking around to see what her benefactor was up to and finding satisfaction upon seeing that she was busy with a rich, pompous, old lady who wanted to make a big order for a dinner party tomorrow night Lucy quickly nicked a grilled fish from the stand and gave to the young boy who answered the unexpected generosity with big surprised eyes. He opened his mouth, probably to thank her, and maybe to refuse the gift but she hushed him with a head shake and whispered to him to meet her when the market ended for the day there at the stand. He nodded and disappeared into the big crowd before being noticed by Lucy's carer. _

_The young boy could not believe his luck. So used to being ignored and treated badly by adults, who only saw a dirty street boy who would empty their pockets at the first chance, he had almost forgotten kindness. He devoured the fish in three big bites. It was the first thing he had eaten in two days, before sitting down by the fountain in the middle of the square to wait for the day to pass. He really wanted to say thank you to the fish-girl. _

_That evening, in the small window between the closing of the market and Lucy's bedtime, two kids who both lost their parents took comfort in one another other by chasing the loneliness away with games and talks and the mere presence of a friend. And every night after that for a whole week he came to meet her when the market closed._

_Then one evening when he came to meet her as usual he told her that he had to leave. He told her about his missing father and that it was time for him to move on, he had to keep searching. They promised each other that they would meet again and after that night she kept waiting for him. At the exact same place every night for two whole years she waited. She even ran there the night they came for her, hoping that he would be there and come with her to the next address on her list, but he never came, and she had to run…._

After the initial shock had settled and she had reclaimed control of the confused feelings and thoughts the unexpected visitor had unknowingly caused, Lucy left the curtain and went to answer the door.

When she opened the door he reached his hand out to greet her, "Hi, I'm Natsu. I am looking for work and was wondering if you have anything available right now?" He greeted with a serious look on his face before his eyes widened, hand still hanging mid-air as he gasped for air when he recognised her.

"You…"

Lucy, excited to meet her old friend again after so many years smiled warmly and grabbed his still outstretched hand.

She instantly regretted her decision.

_The world swirled around and disappeared for a second, only to be replaced by a new, unfamiliar environment, more specifically a maternity room. Lucy saw a bed, drenched in bright red blood on top of which a young, pregnant woman laid, screaming her lungs out with pain so hauntingly present, written all over a face twisted in horror._

_She was burning up._

_As Lucy watched flames erupted from within, scorching her flesh and quickly devouring her whole body. Doctors and nurses tried to put out the mysterious flames at first, with whatever they had near: water, blankets, and even a pulverised fire extinguisher but nothing helped. The flames grew higher and fiercer by the second and soon the panicked hospital staff ran for their lives, some of whom did not make it. The room, completely engulfed in the deadly fire became a death trap as the automatic doors locked themselves to contain the danger._

_Then the scene changed and Lucy now saw the room from the outside, she saw a man desperately hammering on the locked door with his fists, not caring that he scolded himself when the skin came in contact with the hot metal and screaming something Lucy could not make out. When he realised that he would not get in that way he stopped, took a deep breath and disappeared for a few moments, only to come back moments later with a fire axe in his hands. Using the blunt end of the heavy tool as a hammer he crushed the glass and entered the smoke-filled room. He unintentionally freed two nurses that had not made it out before the doors went into self-locking mode in the process. Without hesitation he climbed over the broken glass in search for his wife._

_There was nothing left._

_Only the metallic bedframe remained._

_There was no sign of the young woman, any bed sheets or even the madras. However, on top of the metallic, glowing hot bedframe a small child laid, screaming as much as his small lungs allowed him he cried with the passion and intensity of a newborn infant. The man only hesitated a moment before lifting the blood and ash-covered infant up and leaving the room with his arms protectively wrapped around the small, fragile newborn._

Natsu had no idea what had happened, in one second the girl in front of him had smiled and taken his outstretched hand in hers to respond to his friendly greeting gesture. He could see in her eyes that she had recognised him from when they were younger, even quicker than he had recognised her. Didn't her hair used to be blond? He thought to himself absently. However he never got a chance to further explore that thought because in the next moment her eyes rolled up into her eye sockets and her knees buckled. He caught her before she could fall and hurt herself but less than a second later she gasped for air and woke up with a terrified expression on her face. Her whole body was covered in a cold sweat and she had gotten very pale. In short, she looked like she just woke up from a nightmare. And that puzzled Natsu to no end.

The next thing Lucy became aware of was that she was being held up by the salmon haired teenager Natsu, and that her legs had buckled without her knowing. She straightened herself and could feel a blush creeping up on her cheeks. What would he think of her after this? But she swallowed those thoughts. The premonition was important. She had been witness to a horrible scene where people had been burnt alive. What she could not understand was why touching Natsu's hand had triggered the vision. As far as she could tell he was not in her vision, and so far the only premonitions she had always involved seeing how the person in front of her was destined to die.

After a moment of desperately trying to collect herself, she invited him into the house and asked him to sit down by the kitchen table. She had to know why his presence had triggered this vision, and she could only do that by talking to him…


	4. Chapter 3

**Hi all! I'm back again after a way to long break from writing. Travels, work and studies has kept me away from my keyboard for far to long but now I am back with a whole heap of inspiration and eagerness to write so it should not take too long until an update on Finding family it out as well :). **

**This chapter is mainly a development of Natsu and Lucy's relationship, I hope you will enjoy : ). **

**A special thanks to The Awesome Evil Stick, my lovely Beta Reader! **

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**Chapter 3**

When Natsu stepped into the house, hoping she would have anything more substantial than the coffee she had offered him, his treacherous stomach loudly worded what he was too polite to ask for. The guttural growl made Lucy giggle.

"Still the same huh? Have not eaten in a while I assume?"

Natsu blushed slightly and silently cursed his disloyal stomach but did not deny his hunger. Life on the road could be rough and it was not every day one was provided with the opportunity to eat.

Lucy smiled understandingly and started to organise breakfast for the second time that day. She looked at her childhood friend as he devoured everything she put in front of him, just like when they were kids. Before her 'gift' of premonition had matured. She had been able to touch him then. Holding his hand and even hugging him in the childish innocence that is inevitably lost during human maturation, without being overrun with scenes taken out of a nightmare. She found herself grieving the loss of intimacy and innocence.

Lucy had seen someone die for the first time when she was thirteen. It was a middle-aged man with an ill-fitting, fake hair-piece and a gigantic belly covered by a cheap costume. He had come in to the shop for a regular grooming of the massive moustache that covered half his face and her hand had accidentally touched his when she accepted the money for the service her carer had provided him with. It was a heart attack, a relatively clean death later that same day. A result of a lifetime of too much indulgence: an acquired taste for young, busty girls, expensive liquor and fatty bacon had eventually taken its toll and killed the immoderate man. It had nothing to do with her but it had scared her senseless nonetheless. She remembered that she had locked herself in her room for two weeks straight after that episode.

Since then she had seen many people die, long before they actually did. She had tried to stop it many times. Alter the parameters in every way she could think of and telling them to stay home that day and things like that, but it was not easy to get people to listen. Unsurprisingly, the subject of one's own death is not the most popular subject of conversation and most had brushed her of as a nut-case.

Eventually she had stopped talking.

She was eventually pulled out of her reminiscing of the years that had gone by since they last saw each other by Natsu himself. Knowing nothing of her inner monologue and the reason for her sudden fainting outside he had grown restless and a little uncomfortable sitting quietly in a strangers house for so long.

"Eehm… So… how have you been?" He started.

"I have been good. It is good to see you again Natsu, how have you been? Did you find your father?" She enquired, eager to play along with the small talk and in that way postpone what really bothered her. What she failed to account for was the sensitivity of the subject she had well-meaning brought up. Natsu's expression darkened and he diverted his eyes away from hers.

"No I didn't. Not that I care, I don't need him. I can take care of myself." He stated defiantly and met her gaze, as if to try to challenge her to object his proclamation. Lucy however had no such thing in mind. She avoided his intense, charcoal coloured eyes by lowering hers and an awkward silence coated the room once again.

Natsu, upon seeing her confused and slightly sad expression, realised that his words were unnecessarily harsh towards a kind girl who had nothing to do with his father's abandonment. A girl, who up until that moment had shown him nothing but kindness and hospitality. He felt his ears starting to burn in embarrassment: he had gone and done it again, when would he ever learn not to be such a klutz?

"Um, I… I did not mean it like that, I just… I have not seen him in so many years, I'm not even sure if he is still out there somewhere… you know?" He tried to smooth over his earlier gaffe and thankfully, her lips moved upwards in a warm smile and her big eyes started to glitter again.

"It's alright, I understand." She ensured before going quiet once again. She knew what she had to do but was not looking forward to it one bit, but it had to be done. She could only hope that he would believe her rather than reaching for his pocket to call for security or something like that. It would not be the first time that happened.

"Natsu, I… I have to tell you something. It won't make sense to you but you have to believe me, please?" She begged and her pleading eyes, more so than the words she uttered, convinced him that she was serious with whatever issue she wanted to discuss, so he slowly nodded while swallowing the last piece of the toasted sandwich he had chewed on.

"Yes, what is it Lucy?"

"Um, have you ever heard of premonitions?" She asked, but when not getting any noticeable reaction she sighed on the inside and realised she would not get any help from him. "I know this will sound completely nuts and weird to you but please, you have to trust me!" She pleaded and when she got an almost invisible nod from him she continued. "I can see things, before they happen. My premonitions, or visions if you prefer, they always include the death of the person in front of me and when I touched your hand… I… I'm not completely sure what I saw, I did not see you, and I don't understand why, my visions always include the person that triggered it. But I saw a woman being in a hospital bed being burnt alive, together with many doctors and nurses. Natsu, we have to stop this!"

"Al-right, what do you want me to do?"

"Wait, you believe me?" Lucy was dumbfounded, this had never happened before and she did not know how to respond to his instant trust in her.

Natsu however, simply shrugged and grinned "Well, yeah, why not? Is there a reason I shouldn't?"

And even though she did not have an answer for his rhetorical question she could not ignore the flutter in her stomach when he smiled that confident, welcoming grin and offered his hand again. Her cheeks started to burn and even though if felt like she was about to drown in the dark, glimmering maelstroms that was his eyes, she found it completely impossible to divert her gaze, she was sure she would drown in them and a little voice asked her what would be so wrong with that?

Natsu's grin widened when she, after a seconds hesitation smiled and took his hand again.

Only to be dragged into another vision.

_When the world had stopped spinning Lucy found herself standing in front of a big hospital. It was a massive century-old, grey building with gently angled roof tiles and a circulation point for quick pick-ups and drop-off's in front of the entrance. Suddenly something moved in the corner of her eye and she noticed an old newspaper laying in the ditch of the road, flipping its bone-white pages gently in the faint wind. She leaned forward a bit to get a closer look and caught the date it was printed._

_It was only then Lucy realised she was in the past. _

_18 years ago to be more exact. She lifted her gaze from the newspaper to try to take in as much of her surroundings as possible and she saw the hospital's name. _

_Lucy looked around trying to figure out why she was there and suddenly she saw something that caught her attention, a car drew up to the front in an unusual speed and before it had even stopped completely a man jumped out. _

_Lucy recognised him as the man who had broken into the hospital room in the last vision. The lanky, young man had a mane of bright red hair which swung behind him and accentuated every hasty movement he performed as he rushed around the car and swiftly opened the other door in order to help a pregnant woman out of the car before waving for help and shouting something wordlessly towards the entrance. When the woman stepped out of the car, with one hand on her partner's shoulder for support and the other cradling her huge belly, Lucy recognised her too. _

_It was the young woman who had died in Lucy's last vision._

When Lucy came back to this world she found herself being gently held up by Natsu's strong arms. She realised she must have passed out again and her cheeks burned bright. Soon, however, the initial embarrassment faded away to be replaced by the realisation that she was surrounded by his strong, tanned arms and that she could feel his heart beat faintly against his muscular chest. She jerked away quickly, cheeks burning, if possible, even brighter than just a moment ago.

"Thank you for catching me." She managed to stumble out while desperately trying to collect herself.

Natsu on the other hand, was at least as red as she was, if not redder. Geeze, it was not like he used to hang out with girls all the time and this one had fallen into his lap twice in one day now.

When he had seen her eye-globes disappear into her skull he had reacted instinctively but now he almost wished he had let her fall. At least then he would not have to feel like the idiot he was convinced she thought him to be right now.

"Eh, no worries. So… what did you see?"


End file.
